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  • April 29, 2026

Grounding Digitalization: Technologies, Materialities, and Spaces

About the book:

Digitalization is usually perceived as an invisible process and its cultural embeddedness as well as its material, spatial, and environmental grounding are often neglected. However, digital technologies and transformations are shaped not only by cultural values, practices, and imaginaries, but also by network infrastructures and spatial orders. They consume environmental resources and cause high carbon dioxide emissions and electronic waste. At the same time, these materialities intervene in spaces, thereby reconfiguring socio-spatial arrangements. The contributors to this volume analyze digitalization from a »grounding« perspective that explores involved cultural practices, technologies, materialities, and spaces.

Burri, R.V., Göbel, H. & Reimers, I. (Eds.). (2025). Grounding Digitalization: Technologies, Materialities, and Spaces. Bielefeld, transcript.

Available with open access here

contributors

  • Staff cover

    Prof. Dr. Regula Valérie Burri

    Professor, Science and Technology Studies

  • Staff cover

    Prof. Dr. Hanna Göbel

    Professor, Methods of Urban Practice

2025/2026

Current annual theme

Sensing Zones

Sensing Zones

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Cities and urban societies are facing a multitude of challenges. Climate change, social problems, and the digital transformation are currently among the most pressing issues cities must deal with. The warming of the atmosphere is increasingly felt in urban areas, while zones of overheating emerge. Heatwaves affect cities in particular, endangering the health of vulnerable populations, especially …